Source Book in Jaina Philosophy

SR No.: 001263
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Devendramuni
Publisher: Tarak Guru Jain Granthalay
Publication Year: 1983
Total Pages: 590
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Philosophy
File Size: 10 MB

Page 151

130
A SOURCE-BOOK IN JAINA PHILOSOPHY
to operate as principle of rest who would stand and who would sit ? Who would sleep ? Who could concentrate ? Who could remain silent ? Who can remain inactive? Who could keep the eyelids steady? The world would have constant movement without break. All that is steady and at rest is due to the principle of rest, i. e., Adharma."
COMPARISON WITH ETHER Many Indian and Western philosophers have recognised the reality of motion in the universe, but they have not found it necessary to postulate a principle by which the movement is possible. In the modern science Ether has been suggested to be the medium of movement. It is analogus to the Jaina conception of Dharma. The Ether is one of the outstanding discoveries of the modern science. The eminent scientist Dr. A. S. Edington writes “This does not mean that the Ether is abolished. We need an Ether... in the last century it was widely believed that Ether was a thing of matter having properties such as mass, rigidity, motion like ordinary matter. It would be difficult to say when this view died out...Now a days, it is agreed that Ether is not a kind of matter, being, non-material-- its properties are signaries (quite unique) characters such as mass and rigidity which we meet within matter will naturally be absent in Ether but the Ether will have new and definite characters of its own... non-material ocean of Ether."
Albert Einstein has propounded the Theory of Relativity and he has shown that Ether is non-material, continuous, non-discrete and co-extensive with space. While discussing the comparative study of the Dharmadravya with Ether, Prof. G. R. Jain says "sthat it has been established that the Jaina philosophers and modern scientists agree regarding the principle of Ether and the Dharmadravya as synonymous because both of them are non-material, non-discrete, continuous whole and all-pervading like Akāśa. They have no form, nor have they movement although they are the medium of movement."
1. Bhagavati, 13, 4. 2. The Nature of the Physical World, p. 31.